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The Year in Sports Collecting: 2016 an Eventful Ride

The longest of long holiday weekends has arrived with the duty of closing out one year and launching the next. Not much happens in the hobby during this time of year, but after all that went down in 2016, a little downtime isn’t a bad thing.

No matter what end of this multi-pronged industry/hobby/business you may call home, there was news. Comings and goings. Huge auctions. Incredible items tucked away for decades revealing themselves. Crime. Punishment. Print-to-order baseball cards. Print-to-order cards of…everything.

Sometimes one great find can lead to another. Mile High Card Company sold a century-old Cracker Jack baseball cards poster—one of only a few known examples after a Wisconsin man had discovered it. He’d found the poster hanging in an old barn he’d purchased and after hearing of the Lucky 7 Find, decided to find out what it might be worth.

The answer? $61,471.

Great Collections

While the rest of us were shuffling along with our little boxes and binders, Robert Casterline and Dan Hunt were assembling what’s likely the most valuable collection of vintage football cards you’ll ever see in one place. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has had it on display for the last few months.

Soaring Card Prices

If anything, 2016 will be known as the year of the exploding vintage card market. Led by Mickey Mantle, but scooping up Roberto Clemente, Michael Jordan and several other icons along the way, record prices for high-grade and popular rookie cards were the norm, rather than the exception.

Some market correction has already happened and whispers of price manipulation appear to have played a role in some recent softening but the arena as a whole is still in a completely different place than it was just two or three years ago. Investors and new collectors with cash fell in love with the hobby–and the occasional obscene profits.

Business Partners

Digital Deals

Upper Deck ruffled feathers in the modern card market with their ePack program, selling online packs and boxes. Your collection was always available in digital form (and you can open one free pack a day) but avid fans who spent enough on ePack could also turn them into physical cards.

Topps received an incentive package to expand its digital operations in Florida, illustrating the strength of the market for apps used by folks who aren’t all your traditional collectors. It also allowed the company to keep a foot in other sports markets where it had lost physical licenses.

Cards to Go

Topps chronicled the 2016 baseball season with its NOW platform, turning highlights and milestones into cards, literally overnight. Before the year was out, the company had expanded to other sports and even pro wrestling.

Panini followed suit with its Instant program utilizing the company’s NBA and NFL licenses.

Exclusives

One of the most popular questions we were asked this year was, “when is the Topps football set coming out?” The answer, for those who hadn’t heard, was never. After a half century of producing some kind of football set, Panini’s exclusive deal with the NFL and NFLPA kicked in, leaving Topps on the bench.

Topps still owns the MLB exclusive license through 2020.

Executive Decisions

Rob Lifson, one of the hobby’s most knowledgeable and successful figures, announced early in 2016 that he’d be easing his way out of day-to-day operations at Robert Edward Auctions. Brian Dwyer took over the company, which produces two huge auction catalogs each year.

New Jersey National

The National Sports Collectors Convention detoured from its Chicago-Cleveland schedule with a stop on the Jersey shore. Some predicted it wouldn’t go well. Success or failure depends on who you talk to but the general feeling was that while attendance may have suffered some, those who came were ready to buy. You can check out our coverage here.

Long-suffering Cubs fans finally got to throw World Series parties this fall and the result was good for business. Topps and dealers who carried all of the various commemorative sets and Cubs-related merchandise were along for the ride. With a young core of players, they’ll be one of the primary drivers of the modern card market in 2017, too.

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About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for more than 30 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected]